


The Light is Fading

by secret_stories



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 20:21:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2824955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secret_stories/pseuds/secret_stories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a one shot set after Grady Memorial as the group travel away. Short and sweet!</p><p>My first go at this, definitely a cathartic method of dealing with the MSF. Please forgive any errors, it was written in haste.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Light is Fading

**Author's Note:**

> Daryl slips away with Beth and she comforts him after the debacle that was the Grady hostage exchange.
> 
> Obviously this is inspired by The Walking Dead and of course I do not own the characters!

The light is fading as they slip away from the group. After hours of walking everyone is tired and setting up camp among the dappled evening light of the forest. 

In sight of the others but quietly and without comment, they step slowly over the sound guards and move through the trees, their feet whispering over the drying leaves of autumn. 

No words are needed as they make their way into the quiet evening, golden light flickers through the shadowy limbs of the bare branches above and flitters across her face, picking out the details there. In the shimmers of light and dark her scars stand out on soft skin, reminders of a history that can’t be forgotten. As he glances her way his gaze lingers on the golden wisps of hair that seem to absorb the dying light, glowing faintly against the approaching night. 

Eventually, their short journey is brought to a mutual end as they come to a silent halt. Glancing around the forest, she sees the life he taught her to notice. Closing her eyes, she hears the distant water; the wind whispering it’s way across the fallen leaves and the gentle heartbeat next to her. Turning, she looks up at her companion with a quiet smile. 

His eyes are already on her, taking in all the details he finds there. He sees her absorbing the forest, putting into practice all that he taught her but altering it, making it more. She takes the quiet ebb and flow of the world and sees all the hope and beauty there he never did. Until now. Until her. 

After it happened, after she came back to him, it was a blur. A dream he felt he couldn’t wake from. She was gone, she was not gone and then she was gone again. Another cruel twist in his awful life that seemed made of nothing else. Then she wasn’t gone again, the only light he had found flickered on and he no longer wanted to wake from whatever dream this was. 

Returning her gaze, his eyes felt truly open in a way he didn’t realise they could be. He didn’t look for threats or for danger, he only felt the gentle warmth coming from her smile, the smile that reached her eyes in a way others rarely did. Not now. Not in this world. 

Her lids flickered closed again and she took a deep breath in, the smile still playing about her lips as she enjoyed the moment, the moment of being here, alone with him. 

He continued to watch her for a minute more, before slowly closing his own eyes and joining her vigil, listening to the woods around him, listening to his home. It had never felt so comforting, with her quiet warmth beside him.

As the light faded further through his eyelids, he felt her hand curling into his, warm and soft. His lids flickered open as he turned to take in her gaze once more. She turned towards him and as he lowered his head she lifted her other hand to graze gently down his arm before taking his other hand. Slowly, so slowly, he held her gaze and brought his forehead down to rest against hers. Again, their eyes closed as their bodies came together, feeling the warmth of one another, the steady drum of their heartbeats creating a rhythm for the music of the dark forest around them. 

If this was all there was, he could be happy. Happy in a way his tortured soul never had been. Her breath tickled across his lips as she whispered his name and he didn’t open his eyes, only squeezed her hands gently. 

“You got away from it Daryl” she spoke so quietly he didn’t know if she’d said it or if the wind had snuck between them, whispering secret thoughts.

“You got away from it all, and you don’t need me to remind you. You’re going to be okay Daryl” 

Her soft speech had him squeezing his lids together. He couldn’t stop himself from denying her words. They sounded like music, whistling gently through his mind, but he couldn’t stop himself from holding back. She was everything now, he had her here in front of him but he couldn’t open his eyes. 

Gently, his hands fell from hers and his knees buckled as he dropped to the ground, crossbow bumping against his back. He didn’t open his eyes. He felt her hands move to his face, softly ghosting across his cheeks and into his hair as she joined him on the forest floor. One hand slipped over the worn leather at his back underneath his bow, as the other cupped his cheek, so soft against his greying beard. Her body moved into his and her warm head found its way to the crook of his neck. Her hand moved from his face to his shoulder, squeezing herself into him. 

His head bent forward as she whispered again. Did he hear her? Or was the trickster wind playing again? This time, a gentle tune made its way from her into the quiet night and he heard the piano in his head as she took him back there with her song. Candlelight flickering as he took in all she was, all she could be, and all it meant for him. What he could be as a man, what the world was, what it meant to hope, to see the good. How had he lived so long without knowing? How had he walked and talked and breathed for so long without feeling this? He was alive and it was for a reason. He had to keep going because there could be good, there were still good people and that was worth fighting for. 

“And we’ll be good” the night whispered.

Not far away, his group, his family, sat in silence. A small fire crackled into the darkness, not making a dent in their fears or their grief. Muffled sobs and red eyes meant a sleepless night for most and no words of comfort could change that. 

Slowly, Rick stood and, patting his son’s shoulder, walked into the darkness. His boots crunched on the forest floor as he made his way to the archer, his brother, his friend, among the trees. 

As he walked further, the night flickering through the forest, he came across a dark shadow, hunched on the ground. 

Bow at his back, Daryl sat on his knees, arms hanging at his sides, head down, eyes squeezed shut. His body moved gently with quiet sobs. 

Closing his own eyes against the pain of loss for a moment, he turned and made his way back to the warmth of the fire. Back to the collective grief of a family one daughter less, leaving the archer to his personal sorrow, alone in the darkness where no flickering light could reach him.


End file.
